I am not running for office. I don’t work for the government. But I do consider myself a public servant. I have designed my life to be of service to the people of my nation and the people of the world. As an American citizen, I am dedicated to using my life to improve the lives of those around me. I’ve watched our “public servants” over the last couple of decades, and I’ve learned a lot. From some, I have learned who I want to be. From others, I have learned who I don’t want to be.

I have put countless hours of thought into how I can mold myself to be of best service to my country and the world. And I have put far more hours into solid action, becoming the human I want to be, and leading by a positive example to truly be of service.

I feel today, just before midterm elections 2018, is a timely day to share my personal commitments as a public servant to my nation and the world.

How I built my tiny house for under $1,500 using nearly 100% repurposed materials while creating only 30 pounds of trash.

The tiny house movement has caught on like a wildfire over the last decade, and there’s a lot of positivity coming out if it. I’m very excited about tiny houses and see them as a very useful tool in working towards a more sustainable and just world. I lived in a 50 sq. ft. tiny house in San Diego in 2015-2016. I’ve produced videos about tiny houses to spread the movement through my social media. I’ve visited tiny houses around the United States and in a few countries, and I have even been to a tiny house festival. I’ve made friends with the creators of some of the biggest tiny house pages. Now, I’ve built my first tiny house. Needless to say, I really love tiny houses and am very excited about them. And I’ve become fairly knowledgeable on them.

What is plant it forward? Plant-it-forward is a movement to encourage more people to plant in the backyard. Similar to the Ice Bucket Challenge, participants will plant 3 seeds (or plants), then call out three friends on social media to do the same. It doesn’t matter if they are vegetables, sunflowers, flowers, or big trees – be as creative as you wish. The goal: MORE PLANTING!

The bamboo bike auction is over and the bike has found a new home.
Tonia Howick won the bike for $700, all of which will be used to buy bikes for kids living in low-income scenarios.
Tonia teaches rhetoric at UF in Gainesville and has wanted to start commuting by bike for quite some time. She read my book this year and was inspired to get a bamboo bike. She wanted to purchase a used bike because she tries to buy used and not purchase new, but she was unable to find one. Then my auction popped up in her newsfeed! Today she came down from Gainesville to pick it up and she even brought me a lovely gift of homemade blueberry jam and a hand-knit dish cloth.
I’m so excited for this bike to go to her because this is going to help her start a new chapter of riding her bike to work.
The goodness of the bike will live on. I should be able to get bikes for about seven kids with these funds. And with the funds raised when this bike was stolen and returned, that will bring the total up to about 57 bikes for kids!
Talk about a bike that keeps on giving!

I may not have a whole lot of money, but I’ve got a whole lot of pumpkins!
I am absolutely enamored by the power of the seed. Allow me to share this experience with you.
In January I had dinner with my friend Terry Meer. He made me pumpkin from his garden. This is not just a typical pumpkin you’d find at the grocery store though. This is the fantastic Seminole Pumpkin. I desperately wanted to grow it myself, so I scooped the seeds out of the three pumpkins we cut open, and I took the seeds home with me. In a few months when the time was right I planted them into my gardens.

This was my favorite moment of my foraging trip in South Florida.
We spotted a house with two coconut trees absolutely loaded with coconuts. I took an educated guess that they were not harvesting the trees, as a vast majority of trees are never harvested.
So we stopped the car and knocked on the front door. Sure enough I was right.
The trees had hundreds of fallen coconuts around them, likely a few year’s worth. They were very happy for us to harvest the trees, so we got right to it.

What you see here is the result of two afternoons of urban foraging. Less than eight hours yielded what would have cost over $700 to purchase organic at the grocery store.
And I did it all on bicycle with a trailer!

Over the last month, I have helped to plant 100 Community Fruit Trees in Orlando. Much of the food that I personally plant I can expect to share in the bounty in just a few months or less. Fruit trees on the other hand are a long-term investment. Most of them won’t produce fruit this year or next, and some won’t produce fruit for as much as five years.